IO HD Pro Res flashing/sync?

I'm having trouble with Pro Res 422. All files digitized and re-encoded in Pro Res 422 have a flash/flicker/sync-like issue. I've done several projects successfully with IO HD in SD-DV codec so I know hardware is working. I have tried:

Unfortunately you are not seeing the real image when capturing through FCP. Not until you playback to captured footage and view on a external monitor (or set the viewer to 100% in FCP, this problem is hidden. I had the same issue when the IoHD first came out and I captured a bunch of HDCAM SR tapes to ProRess (HQ). The fix was to do a complete firmware update/re-install of the Io.

To see if there is an overall issue with ProRes or if is it is just IoHD, Test one of the know clips with a problem in QT Player, just stepping through the video to see if the problems are in the file, test a file that was encoded via the IoHD and then some that are transcoded in Compressor or FCP.

Also remove the IoHD and do your FCP conversion test to see if you still get the problem.

If there is an overall problem with ProRes you may need to do a reinstall but I would test a lot of things before I did that.

I tried re-encoding a HD DVCpro file with no IO attached. Encode and playback are good. I reconnected IO and frame sync issue is now there. I've just uninstalled all drivers and I'm about to re-load driver 6.0.3. What's the deal with IO HD driver version 7.1? The release notes say driver 7.1 won't work with anything below FCP7.0.1 and on the aja support download page it says driver will work with FCP 6.x and 7.0.1 but not 7.0. I have FCP 6.0.6. Has anyone had any luck using newest driver 7.1 with FCP 6.0.6?

I've now reinstalled IO HD driver v6.0.3. The same problematic sync issue is there. The problem looks like I parked the scrubber in between fields but it exists during playback and pause.

1-For testing purposes I'm using an HD DVCpro project captured via panasonic deck thru firewire (IO HD never attached during edit/capture/playout).
2- I exported the HD DVCpro sequence using QT conversion to Pro Res 422 HD 1920x1080 (IO HD was not attached during reencode). The new stand alone QT file plays fine in QT both from my internal drive and eSata external drive (both with and without IO HD attached.
3-Same QT file playback through AJA TV has sync issues, in fact, when the file opens in AJA TV the first frame appears to be parked between fields.
4-Created new FCP project using easy setup AJA IoHD- 1080i 29.97 Apple ProRes 422
5-Imported stand alone ProRes QT file I created earlier from eSata drive. Dropped in timeline sequence. Noticed the field dominance native in this file is NONE. Playout through AJA IO has sync issues. Canvas window at 100% no issue.
6-In the new FCP project I manually changed the video playback setting from aja IO to destop main and audio to built-in. The sequence plays fine on my computer full screen.
7-I returned to original HD DVCpro project, duplicated sequence, changed sequence settings to ProRes 422, and easy setup to Aja IO 1080i ProRess 422. The canvas at 100% no problems but the playout through aja is flashing/flickering out of sync

did you make sure that you re-flashed the firmware on the IoHD back to the 6.03 version?

the IoHD was designed to use Apple ProRes, DVCProHD playback with the IoHD really requires a desktop to handle the conversion to ProRes in real time.

"5-Imported stand alone ProRes QT file I created earlier from eSata drive. Dropped in timeline sequence. Noticed the field dominance native in this file is NONE. Playout through AJA IO has sync issues. Canvas window at 100% no issue. "

DUH - it cannot properly play the file as interlace if you set the field order to NONE.

Where are you getting these ideas from? it looks as if you are adding problem on to problem and that is not helping you-

did you make sure that you re-flashed the firmware on the IoHD back to the 6.03 version?

How do I do that? Do I just click on the aja ioupdater? Is the current firmware automatically downloaded when I downloaded driver 6.0.3? Is there somewhere I can download the firmware?

"5-Imported stand alone ProRes QT file I created earlier from eSata drive. Dropped in timeline sequence. Noticed the field dominance native in this file is NONE. Playout through AJA IO has sync issues. Canvas window at 100% no issue. "

DUH - it cannot properly play the file as interlace if you set the field order to NONE.

The stand alone QT file I created was re-encoded from FCP choosing Export>Quicktime conversion and then in options choosing PRESET Pro Res 422 and Size HD 1920x1080. I never chose de-interlace or make it progressive. FCP's conversion created the new clip progressive.

the IoHD was designed to use Apple ProRes, DVCProHD playback with the IoHD really requires a desktop to handle the conversion to ProRes in real time.

Sorry if I was confusing when describing this. I'm not trying to playback DVCProHD through the IO I know it won't work (on laptop). I used a sequence from a perfectly working DVCProHD project and re-encoded it into Pro Res 422. I've been testing using the re-encoded prores 422 file.

Is it possible that the clip I'm having this trouble with was recorded in two different formats? My problem only seems to be during color bars at the top of the tape. The rest of the sequence seems to play fine. I've unfortunately done a lot of work to find that I've been stuck on trying to get the bars to playback correctly. The tape was from Disney Broadcast Services and I don't have it anymore. Here's what I think may have happened. The tape was labeled 1080i. Put it in deck and switched the deck to 1080i from 720p. I digitized footage via SDI in HD ProRes 422. The footage on the tape is fine but the bars are out of sync. Is it possible the bars were done in 720p60 and the rest of the footage was laid in at 1080i? Then a conversion from the panasonic deck 720p to 1080i via SDI out and ProRes doesn't like the results?

You are not going crazy, I had a similar problem and after hours of troubleshooting the only solution that I've found was to turn off "Mirror on Desktop" when laying off. Rudy at AJA is aware of the problem and when I last spoke to him he said he was going to talk to the engineers about it. I hope this helps.

None of the suggestions worked. I don't think it's a hardware issue. I'm sure if I had reformatted my MBP 15" 2.54ghz and did a new install of all the associated parts it would've worked. I couldn't do that though because my 15" I use for everyday production use. Now I have a separate machine just dedicated to the AJA IO HD and editing.

By the way I did something very very interesting. Client asked to have several projects of theirs laid off to HDcam. The projects were on hard drives in XDcam and DVCpro 50 SD. So I used and IO express on my MBP 15" playing out the XDCam straight to tape. But, the DVCpro 50 I output from IO express into my IO HD where I up-res'd it then out to HDcam... all SDI.

Is there any chance the IO HD will ever have a new driver that will be able to play through XDCam or DVCpro HD on a laptop? I know it's not meant to but just a play out would be nice. Is it the speed in the express34 IO expresses interface that makes the IO express work?